Spring 2025 Commencements, held at First Horizon Coliseum at the Greensboro Complex on May 9 for the Graduate College and May 10 for undergraduates, brought two major “firsts” to the university:
The first spring commencements to be presided over by Chancellor James R. Martin II; and the first graduates of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’ Ph.D. program, which launched in 2022.
“You’ve been shaped by the values of A&T,” Martin told an undergraduate class of more than 1,600, including 127 CAES undergraduate Aggies. You have the responsibility to use your education to lift others up and shape the world around you.”
Martin took note of the 135th anniversary of the Second Morrill Act, the law signed and passed by Congress in 1890 that required states to establish separate land-grant institutions for Black students or demonstrate that admission was not restricted by race.
“The Second Morrill Act was passed in 1890 and just eight months later, North Carolina A&T was born in our state’s general assembly as the Agricultural & Mechanical College,” said Martin. “Who could have guessed all these many years later, A&T would hold such a singular place in American education? We’re the number one producer of Black STEM graduates, the number one producer of Black engineers, the number one producer of Black agricultural scientists. And I can keep going.”
Brad Holmes ’02, executive vice president and general manager of the National Football League’s Detroit Lions, served as keynote speaker for the two baccalaureate student ceremonies Saturday.
A defensive tackle, he was a four-year letterman, two-year starter and 2001 captain for the Aggie football team, which won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Historically Black College and University National Championship under legendary coach Bill Hayes.
In his keynote speech, he gave the new graduates his own pep talk.
“Chase your passion. Read as much as you can. Be grateful. Be consistent,” he said.
“Life is hard, but you already knew that. Choose your hard. Financial discipline is hard, but so is debt. Marriage is hard, but so is divorce. Waking up on time to go to work is hard, and so is unemployment. Choose your hard.”
An Animal Sciences graduate’s mortarboard shows her next plans.
Twenty-three graduate students left the coliseum with diplomas and certificates on May 9, including one Ph.D. student, 12 master’s degree-earners and 10 students receiving certificates in human lactation and advanced waste management, respectively.
Keynote speaker Joan Higginbotham is a retired NASA astronaut and the third African American woman to go into space. Widely recognized for her accomplishments in space exploration, she is a recipient of the National Space Medal, the Adler Planetarium Women in Space Award and NASA Exceptional Service Medal and was named one of Savoy Magazine’s Top Influential Women in Corporate America and one of Essence magazine’s Top 50 Women, among other accolades.
To succeed, she told graduates, “say ‘yes’ to the stretch.”
“The journey began long before liftoff; it began with an education and doing the hard work when no one was watching,” said Higgenbotham. “It began with being willing to be the only woman in the room and sometimes the only person of color, not letting that stop me but instead using that to fuel me. It began with turning what could have held me back into the very thing that propelled me forward.”
The ceremony also recognized the college’s inaugural doctoral candidate in agricultural and environmental sciences: Arjun Thapa, who graduated from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design with a concentration in sustainable agriculture and environmental sciences. Ph.D. student William Oyom, who finished the semester in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences with a concentration in food science, human nutrition and health, will walk the stage with his degree in Fall 2025.
